


Another Good Day

by Perpetual Motion (perpetfic)



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Restaurant, Amanda and Mike are here too!, Barisi Summer Exchange 2020, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:00:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25116532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perpetfic/pseuds/Perpetual%20Motion
Summary: Sonny Carisi, restaurant owner and Fordham graduate, happily welcomes the latest group of Fordham freshmen to his pizza place.
Relationships: Rafael Barba/Dominick "Sonny" Carisi Jr.
Comments: 21
Kudos: 46
Collections: Barisi Summer Exchange 2020





	Another Good Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mimisempai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mimisempai/gifts).



"First shuttle!" Mike yells from out back, where he's got the door propped open while he brings in produce. 

"Shit!" Amanda yells as she hurries to the front of the house and smacks right into Sonny's back. "Ow! What the fuck?!"

"I'm standing where I always stand," Sonny says. 

"Bullshit," Amanda replies, pushing her bangs off her face and straightening her apron. She and Sonny watch as the shuttle parks in the tiny space in front of the restaurant and a tour guide in a maroon Fordham T-shirt and khaki shorts steps off. 

"Hey, Sonny!" The tour guide, Toby, says as he steps inside. "Twelve on the bus. No vegetarians. No lactose intolerant. One celiac."

"I'll tell Mike to warm up the GF crust," Amanda says, turning on her heel to head back to the kitchen. 

"What've we got for majors?" Sonny asks as he steps behind the bar and starts filling waters. 

"Two undecided. A couple of marketing hopefuls, four journalism majors, and four pre-law."

"Have you warned them who I am?"

"No, but they were properly terrified of Rafael's welcome speech at orientation."

Sonny grins. "If no one objects, feel free to get them set up outside under the awning."

"Will do, thanks."

"You gonna be on the second tour?"

"No, that'll be Kat."

"I'll have Mike prep some anchovies," Sonny says. 

"I'll text her. She'll be psyched."

Sonny gets the waters loaded onto two serving trays, then picks up one as Amanda comes back out of the kitchen to get the other. They step onto the patio of the restaurant and stand back as the twelve teenagers doing the extended Fordham tour jockey for places to sit. 

"All right, settle!" Toby yells. "Let's let Sonny and Amanda put down your waters, and then you can move around all you like before Amanda takes our orders."

"Do you take every tour group here?" A boy with a clearly affected look of disinterest asks.

"Yup. Sonny's a graduate of Fordham's culinary program, _and_ he has his MBA from us as well."

"Don't look impressed," Sonny says to the guy as he sets down his water, "There was a gap between those two."

"His husband teaches there, too," Amanda adds.

"And I also make some of the best pizza in the city," Sonny says as he works down his half of the table with the other waters. "But I'm biased. I mean, I own the place."

"Then why isn't your name on the sign?" the boy asks. 

Sonny glances up at the sign. It always makes him smile to see it. "Because it's named for someone very special," he says. 

"Menus," Amanda says, handing the stack to a girl with a mohawk, who takes one and passes the others. "I'll give you all a minute, but before I go, who wants something to drink other than water?" Four hands go up, and Amanda makes her way around the table to take the orders. 

Sonny goes back inside to check on Mike. He has the gluten-free crust in the warming oven, and he's brushing the dough for a regular crust with olive oil and butter. "You need me to get anything?" Sonny asks.

"We're low on pepperoni," Mike says.

Sonny gets a log of pepperoni from the walk-in and pulls a slicing knife off the magnet strip on the wall. He cuts the first few slices quickly, stops to check that they're evenly cut, then finishes the whole log by the time Amanda's at the kitchen door with the order sheet. 

"Three regular pies," she says. "One cheese, one sausage, one farm killer. Prosciutto and tomatoes on the gluten-free."

"Cheese, sausage, farm killer," Mike repeats back to her as he slides the dough he's just brushed down the long, steel counter and takes two more off the rack. "Prosciutto and tomato GF."

"Got it," Amanda says. "Toby's splitting the GF with the person who needs it," she tells Sonny. 

"Copy that," Sonny replies. "We've got an hour before the lunch rush. Stay up front and slice fruit at the bar, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know where you want me," Amanda replies as she leaves Sonny and Mike alone. 

"I thought Toby wasn't coming back as a tour guide this year," Mike says as he brushes the second and third crusts. 

"Something changed, I guess," Sonny replies. "I'll ask Rafael when he gets here. He'll know."

"Sonny, why would I ask?" Mike says in a passing imitation of Rafael.

Sonny laughs. "And yet, he always knows."

Mike laughs with him. 

Sonny ladles sauce onto the first crust and spreads it perfectly from years of practice. He slides the dough over, then repeats the sauce on the second and third pans. Mike steps around him to start piling on cheese, and they work the whole line like that, each walking around the other to get to the next ingredient until all three pies are in the oven and Mike can wash his hands and tackle the gluten-free crust himself. A ding echoes through the kitchen.

"Sonny!" Amanda hollers from the kitchen doorway. "Your bitter bear is here!"

Sonny steps out of the kitchen, dusting his hands on his apron to get the flour off. Rafael's standing by the bar, looking unamused at the nickname Amanda refuses to give up. "Hey," he says, dipping down to give Rafael a hello kiss. "Did you terrify the tour group when you walked by?"

"I wasn't paying attention," Rafael replies, though the smile he's trying to hide says that he absolutely was. "I'm just here for my free lunch."

"A likely story," Sonny says. 

Rafael smiles fully now, reaching up to brush his fingers on Sonny's chin. "Flour," he says, holding up his fingertips so Sonny can see they're dusted white. 

"He's your husband; just feel him up like a normal person," Amanda says as she slices lemons. 

Rafael sits at the bar and steals an orange slice from the condiment tray, dodging Amanda's attempt to rap his knuckles with expert grace. "Tell your boss to quit ogling the customers and get my lunch out here," Rafael says. 

Amanda grins. "You heard the man, Sonny. Hurry it up. We don't need scary Professor Barba giving us a bad grade."

Sonny laughs and goes back into the kitchen. Mike's finished with the gluten-free crust and is crumbling feta into the beet and walnut salad Rafael always eats for lunch when he comes in. "Thanks," Sonny says. 

"Hey, I've always got you covered," Mike replies. There's another ding, and Sonny turns on his heel, dropping off Rafael's salad with a quick smile as he walks to the front to greet the first official lunch clients of the day. 

He gets them seated and takes their drink order, then passes it to Amanda as she steps around the bar so he can take over slicing fruit. 

"Hi," Rafael says as he pops a dressing-covered blueberry into his mouth. 

"Hi," Sonny replies. "Come here often?"

Rafael groans. Sonny asks him every time, and every time, Rafael groans. "How'd the tour seem?"

"There's one disaffected guy, and the rest just seemed pumped," Sonny replies, finishing the last of the lemons. He rinses his knife and pulls out the container of limes. "I was surprised to see Toby. I didn't think he'd be back this year. You hear anything about that?"

"Sonny, why would I ask?" Rafael says, and Sonny snorts not just at the usual question but at the fact that Mike's impression was better than he gave it credit for. "I might have heard something about him losing a grant."

"Might have?" Sonny teases. He leans over the bar and steals a pinch of feta. "You know, you can just admit you asked."

"If I did, Mike wouldn't be able to perfect his impersonation."

Sonny snickers and leans back to finish cutting the limes. "Any good questions from the pre-law students? Toby said you had a few."

"They mostly just looked terrified," Rafael says with a shrug. "But if they shake it off and apply themselves, I'm sure they'll do fine."

"My god, you're over abundant with your praise," Sonny teases.

Rafael smiles at him and eats more of his salad.

*

Sonny helps Amanda drop off the pizzas, seats four more people who come in for lunch, and then goes back to the bar to sit with Rafael and have an Italian soda. "How about burgers tonight?" Sonny says. "We can go old school and get the pre-formed patties and American cheese, and I can slice some potatoes real thin and bake them to make chips."

"You had me at American cheese," Rafael replies, and he presses his smile into a kiss on Sonny's cheek. "Tomatoes and onions?"

"Yeah. And pickles. Dad dropped by this morning and left ten quarts of his home-canned. I'll swipe one. I'm hoping I can give the others away as door prizes or something. No way the health inspector will be cool with me using them on anything here."

"Please tell me that they're finally almost out of cucumbers and zucchini," Rafael says. "They can't have many more left."

"Dad said there's still plenty. If I'd known Dad retiring was going to lead to even more vegetables from their garden, I'd have begged him to stay on the job another ten years."

Rafael snorts and presses into Sonny's side. He holds out his hand, and Sonny slides his Italian soda over so he can have a drink. "If you walk in tonight with some secret zucchini stash you're not mentioning right now, I can rightfully divorce you."

"Are you kidding? I wouldn't even contest it," Sonny says. Amanda catches his eye, and he stands up, undoing his apron and draping it over his bar stool. "Time to see off the tour group. Want to come?"

Rafael stands, Sonny's Italian soda still in hand, and follows him out the front door of the restaurant. Sonny sees the moment the pre-law kids spot Rafael, and then all look up at the sign on the building. 

"Wait," one of them says, looking from the sign, to Rafael, and then back at the sign again. "Wait," he repeats. 

Sonny grins. "I love having pre-law people on the tour," he says. "Not that the rest of you aren't great, but it's always fun when they put it together."

"Put what together?" someone else asks.

"Well, like it was mentioned earlier, that's not my name," Sonny says, gesturing towards the sign. 

Rafael gives him a fondly long-suffering look. "But it is mine," he drawls with a roll of his eyes that makes the whole tour group laugh. "Because I am a terrifying professor by day and married to a sap all the time."

"I named it Rafael's so he'd always be with me, even if he's at work," Sonny says. As always, the mixed reaction from the tour group delights him. A couple of people look charmed, a few look annoyed. The disaffected guy from earlier looks like he maybe had his first unplanned feeling since puberty and doesn't know what to do with it. "And we're both happy to welcome you to Fordham in the fall."

Rafael takes a tiny pennant out of his back pocket. It's Fordham maroon with a rainbow ram's head in the middle. "Go Rams," he says, as droll as before. 

"Ignore him," Sonny says. "He went to Harvard. Which I am _sure_ he mentioned."

"He did," the pre-law students chorus, and everyone laughs at that. 

"We'll see you soon," Sonny says to Toby as the students load back onto the shuttle.

"You want a ride back, Professor?" Toby asks Rafael.

Rafael shakes his head. "I'm done for the day. Think I'll stay here and file some complaints with the health department."

Toby girns, long-used to the faux-bickering Sonny and Rafael can get up to. "Well, good luck with that."

Sonny stands on the patio and watches the shuttle turn around the corner. When he shifts his gaze to the table, he's unsurprised to see Rafael already there with a busser's tub loading up plates. "I could have gotten that," he says. He says it every time. 

"Hey, it's my name on the building," Rafael replies like he always does. "I've got to keep up appearances."

Sonny smiles and starts stacking glasses. It'll be another two hours before the next shuttle arrives, but lunch will be picking up shortly. He needs to get in the back and help Mike prep. Rafael will stay up front and get people seated, then help Amanda if she needs an extra pair of hands. He'll walk back to Fordham for the afternoon session, then duck in for happy hour before he and Sonny go home. 

Sonny carries the glasses inside, Rafael at his back, and loads the dishes for the dishwasher. There's another ding, and Rafael leaves the kitchen, calling a greeting as he walks across the floor. Sonny's apron is hanging by the hand sanitizer. He slips it on, washes his hands, and gets back to work.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you, M, for the beta!
> 
> And Mimi, darling, I was over the moon to get to write you something! I loved your pizza edits for Sonny and Raf, but I hope you'll like the reason I changed the name of the place.


End file.
